The following is produced from the Afloat Magazine January 2009

www.afloat.com.au/afloat-magazine/2009/january-09/Harbour_Happenings#.Vo8siWxumUk

Sydney Hobart winning skippers of the '50s and '60s

Graham Newland

Graham Newland is one of only seven yacht owners to have won two or more Sydney Hobart Yacht Races overall since the famous ocean race was first sailed 62 years ago. 

 He won twice on handicap with his Lion class yacht Siandra, in 1958 and 1960, and also notched up a second and a third. 

Newland, who died in November, also played a significant role in Australia's major international wins in the 1967 Admiral's Cup in England and the 1971 One Ton Cup in New Zealand. 

Affectionately known as 'Nude Nut', he was born and raised in Sydney, where he sailed his first yacht Firefly out of Middle Harbour Yacht Club. 

He sailed as a watch captain on Gordon Ingate's Caprice of Huon in Australia's first challenge for the Admiral's Cup in Cowes in 1965, winning three of four races. The Australian team placed second overall. 

 In 1967, he had the same role with the boat, chartered by Gordon Reynolds. The Australian team of Caprice of Huon, Balandra and Mercedes III scored a major upset by winning the Admiral's Cup. 

For the 1971 One Ton Cup in Auckland, the then prestigious level rating rule, Newland persuaded Sydney yachtsman Syd Fischer to charter the Sparkman & Stephensdesigned Stormy Petrel. Newland, an engineer and by then a renowned 'yacht doctor', suggested that her ballast and rig be increased, with new sails designed by Hugh Treharne for New Zealand conditions. The result was a great victory for Australia. 

In 1977, Newland joined his 1965 Admiral's Cup challenge skipper Gordon Ingate in campaigning Gretel II for her second tilt at the America's Cup at Newport, Rhode Island. His wife Lurl also played a significant role, as the 'House Mother' for the RSYS crew at Newport. 

Newland was tactician and starting helmsman in the "Dad's Army" campaign that went down fighting for the right to challenge the Americans. 

In a long yachting career, Graham Newland sailed in 15 Sydney Hobarts with two wins with Siandra, two One Ton Cups with a win in Syd Fischer's Stormy Petrel, four Fastnet Races including a win and a third in Fischer's original Ragamuffin, a Bermuda Race on the English yacht Firebrand and on Norman Rydge's Lorita Maria, skippered by Peter Green, in a TransAtlantic Race from Rhode Island to Copenhagen. 

Retiring from yachting, Graham became a fulltime farmer on a 2,000 acre property named Tarrawong at Goolma near Gulgong. He bought a glider which he flew out of Narromine, later getting his engine aircraft pilot's licence. This led to buying Cape York Aerial Services with a contract for the mail run from Cairns to cattle properties on Cape York. 

 Despite his declining health in recent years, one of Graham's remaining pleasures was the monthly ROMEO (Retired Old Men Eating Out) lunch organized by John Brooks at the Sydney Flying Squadron.